


I Refuse

by sunbee



Category: The Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan
Genre: Apocalypse, F/M, warm up writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-30 00:30:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12642423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbee/pseuds/sunbee
Summary: As the apocalypse makes its chaotic return twelve years later, Carter and Sadie are at their most powerful, and are in desperate needs of naps.





	I Refuse

**Author's Note:**

> I tried something new while I was warming up for my short story . . . Please enjoy!

The sun rises over the Brooklyn House, lighting up the river, reflecting off the gold detailing, illuminating the empty pool that Philip of Macedonia rested in at one point. In the kitchen, the coffee pots brew, and Carter Kane has his back turned towards the hopeful eyes of magicians. He drinks his black coffee, looking out over the destruction that will soon find it’s way towards the Nome. 

Exhausted from taking the night shift of defending the Nome from thousands of monsters, Sadie’s jaw is cut up with three slashes. She sits at the breakfast table and Jaz’s hands work fast, pulling enchanted threads to stitch the cuts up. Zia comes behind him, rubbing a warm hand on his back. If Carter looked over his shoulder at her, he was sure she would have bags under her eyes from summoning fires and blinding solar flares. 

Zia’s skin slowly heated up as the sun continued to rise, and as the screeching of monsters rose in the Sunday morning air. 

“We have three minutes before they arrive,” Zia said softly. Her breath smells like coffee. Her skin smells like Shea butter and almond milk. 

“I know,” Carter says. His voice is soft; it cracks in fear he hasn’t shown. 

After a few deep breaths and he downs the rest of his coffee, Carter turns to look at the Nome. Half of the initiates are asleep. Shelby, thirteen now, is rested on a jackal the size of a bull. Her arm is cut up and wrapped up in bandages. 

Walt paces. He’s walked the main room enough to cover a football field at least twice. His form flickers between the Walt Carter knows, the Walt in Yeezys and jeans and a sweater to the Walt that comes out during battle. The one where the Duat becomes fuzzy, where the Duat starts to flicker and Walt is in Egyptian battle armor and his head isn’t always human. 

Every time Sadie flinches, the jackal Shelby sleeps on snarls a bit. 

“Two minutes,” Zia whispers into Carter’s ear. The breath of hot air combined with the proximity of Zia combined with imminent doom causes a shiver to run down Carter’s spine. 

Carter sucks in a breath. His heart pounds faster. Horus’ voice becomes deepened and chanting inside of his head. The blood thirsty war god presses against Carter’s skin, itching for battle. 

Closing his eyes, Carter reaches into the Duat and pulls out his crook and flail, shaking them a bit. Gold sparks errupt from the ends. He looks to Zia, before back to the magicians who began to collect themselves, pulling out wands and staffs and swords. 

The screeching of monsters rises, and suddenly the whole House shakes. Carter sets his mug down, glancing over at Zia. 

“We’ll see each other when we get back,” Carter promises her. Horus screams inside of him, turning his Eye of Horus amulet hot and glowing. 

“Of course,” Zia says, “I won’t let you go that easily.” 

Zia’s smirk relaxes Carter a bit, and he kisses her before the two of them and magicians of all different stages of training go out to meet the Apocalypse. 

As Carter exits to the patio, his mind syncs up with Horus, who lets out a roar, excited to see battle again. Mortal Kombat only starved him off for so long. 

“Beast mode!” Calls a magician, Dylan. His voice is wavering through the Duat, and he blasts a bright light at the oncoming monsters. 

Carter twirls his crook and flail before slamming them together, knocking back a few of the monsters that were climbing up the sides of the Nome. 

Across the way, the Empire State Building shook, a huge storm brewing around it and seeping down into the roads. 

As the sun rises, Carter sees Zia slowly start to become more and more powerful. Her hair flowing from adrenaline, she blasts monsters back with solar flares and already-bright eyes glow in the early morning mist. 

Carter’s crook and flail come into contact with a particularly nasty monster, one with eyes growing all over it’s body. The force shakes the monster back, plummeting off the Nome. 

It isn’t until hours of combat that Carter feels his body start to burn up. His movements slow down, his body is dripping in sweat. He exchanges the Pharaoh’s crook and flail for his khopesh, using it to bring down a few more monsters. The hieroglyph for ‘throw’ appears in front of him, and a row of winged monsters are knocked back. 

There’s a twinkle in the air, a sound of heavy wings, and the monster’s attention backs away from the currently fighting magicians. Those with wings pounce up, chasing after Sadie as she holds her hands out, casting the hieroglyph for ‘dust,’ and letting the monsters disintegrate into ash. 

Carter takes the distraction to rush at a large on coming beast, meeting it with his khopesh the same time a jackal the size of a horse lunged for it’s throat. 

Carter doesn’t feel the blow that comes next, one from behind, the one that knocks him off the patio of the Brooklyn house. He hits the asphalt, and the avatar of Horus flickers from the hit. The concrete around him is shattered like a crater. Around him lie the bodies of various monsters that have not yet returned to chaos. 

The wings of Isis shatter like broken glass as Sadie falls down from where she had been flying. What is left of them beat against the air, rebuilding themselves as blue magic starts to surround her. Echoing through the Duat, ringing through the air and amplified by the Wings of Isis is Sadie’s cry of loss. The blue magic circles around her before extending outwards in a blast, knocking monsters off the patio. 

Zia drives her staff into the ground to hold her place against the elemental magic. Sadie’s bond with Isis flickers, the amulets around her neck heating up. 

Rushing over the edge, Zia sees Carter laying there and then looks back to Sadie, who’s slowly moving back to her feet. Black smoke collects at her feet, curling upwards and mixing with the blue magic, wrestling it’s way into the divine words of life and peace and words of battle Zia cannot read. They are words the gods speak, words that Isis pulses through Sadie. 

Through the Duat, Sadie’s life force slowly dwindles as she competes to blast monsters with balls of light. 

Zia drops down off the side to avoid Sadie’s wrath. He casts a spell to soften the blow before rushing to Carter’s side, careful of where the asphalt has risen and where the monsters have fallen. 

When Zia makes it to the flickering avatar and then to the recent graduate of Brown University, she drops down to her knees and leans down to check his breathing. When she felt none, a blast of blue erupted from the top of the Brooklyn House, sending more monsters tumbling from the side of it. 

Without knowing Carter’s secret name, there was no way to pull him back from Death. Zia cups Carter’s cheek and leans down to press a kiss to his forehead. The earth shakes among them. Monsters, turned to dust and wrapped in mummification linens fall around them. Buildings crumble and the sun rises. Thunder shakes throughout the New York skyline. 

Death is not how Sadie describes it. 

Carter stands on the street of his childhood home. The Los Angeles sun radiates down on him. His sister’s blonde hair is still curly, to yet damaged from years of straightening it. A young Carter chases after her. Down the street, Carter sees a younger man leaning against a street lamp light a cigarette. His leather jacket is faded, his jeans are cuffed to show black boots. After taking a drag of the cigarette and letting it slowly slip between his lips, Death waves at Carter. 

Anubis disappears and reappears next to Carter. The warmth of Carter’s childhood home is polar from the god of Death. Sadie describing him as warm, as smelling like hibiscus tea and as kind was quickly evaporated. He was cold, he smelled like cigarettes, and his eyes were dark and endless. 

“Is this really the last time you were happy?” Anubis asks. He takes another drag from his cigarette, “Most people have ones much closer to their time of death.” 

Carter is silent. 

Anubis looks to him, raises an eyebrow, “Would you rather see me with a jackal head and in my traditional wear?” 

“What am I doing here?” Carter asks. 

“I thought it was obvious,” Anubis says, “You’re here to relive your last memory before we go to the Hall of Judgement.” 

Heart pounding, Carter looked where Ruby, young, hair tied back and in exercise clothes, exists from her car. He then turned towards Anubis, “I can’t leave them. They’re fighting-” 

“Hard,” Anubis said, “But I cannot do anything to help you and your situation.” 

Watching as the two toddlers ran to Ruby, Carter wondered if he could simply stay in that moment forever. Mom, coming home from the gym. He and Sadie playing in the front yard. As soon as Sadie fell, hitting her face on the driveway, the memory shook blue before it repeated again. 

“We cannot stay here forever,” Anubis said, taking another drag of his cigarette, “Unless you want to go mad. This is how we have ghosts.” 

Carter’s breathing staggered, the crushing reminder of what he was leaving hitting him in the chest, “I can’t die.”

Anubis raised an eyebrow, “You can’t? Or you won’t? There are somethings that are inevitable.” 

The memory shook again, this time unbalancing Carter. His hand shot out to balance himself. 

“Time to go,” Anubis said, “Don’t make your sister hate me anymore than she already does.” 

That comment threw Carter off. The air whispered around him. While Carter’s hair blew in the wind, Anubis’ stayed still. 

“Can I refuse?” Carter asked. 

“Technically.” 

“I refuse.”


End file.
